During the last ten years, Veronica Håkaby has participated in at least 2,500 lectures.
- I have an extremely educational workday, she declares.
She is a "meeting host" in Easymeeting, and during the digital video lectures she is responsible for monitoring that the technique works as it should, and that all participants get the maximum benefit from the lectures they attend. She does not make very large numbers of her own presence. In practice, she sits in her own office, but the students can see on her own screen that she is present.
Changes in educational content
- If everything works as it should, do you not have to follow the whole lecture?
- No, in practice I did not have to be as much present as I actually am. But first, it is very nice to be able to contribute if an unforeseen challenge should arise. And secondly, it is actually quite interesting to follow the academic content of the teaching, she admits.
Veronica has a special follow-up responsibility for digital distance learning, and probably the job would not have been as exciting if she had followed up the same type of course and the same curriculum year after year. This is not the case.
- No, there is very rarely the same content in these lectures, and also the courses themselves have changed a lot. The courses and seminars that are arranged through the Study Center can to a large extent be said to have followed the same form, but for teaching under the auspices of the universities, a lot has changed in a few years. In the past, education for social workers and auxiliary nurses was dominant. Today, education for nurses is becoming one of the most important we do in video teaching, and this is a development that is very exciting to be a part of, she believes.
Decentralized education based on the multi-campus model is becoming a key to increasing the capacity of education, while at the same time reducing the barrier to further education for professionals in rural areas.
- Geographical distances should not stand in the way of a good educational offer. Motivated professionals who live in the rural areas should have the same access to vocational education as those who live in the university towns, she says.
More experienced lecturers
For 14 years, Veronica has been able to follow developments in video teaching closely. A lot has changed during these years, but according to her it is neither in technology nor the academic content that the changes have been most obvious.
- It is the lecturers who have changed the most, she believes.
- It is not the tools, but the use of the tools that have changed first and foremost. At first, most of the lecturers looked quite terrified, to be completely honest, but this has changed dramatically as they have gained more experience and experienced a greater degree of security, she says.
- Can you do something yourself to contribute to greater security?
- Sure! I try to do this all the time. I often talk to the lecturers in the preparations, and we like to talk afterwards as well. Some are happy, and maybe even a little surprised when I can tell about the positive development in their own performance, she says.
Routine creates security, and security makes the overall experience more positive for everyone involved.
- They know that I am here, if something should intersect with the technical, and this means that they can concentrate on the academic - which is their own home ground.
- What distinguishes the good from the less good lecturers?
- The lecturers who have come the furthest in mastering video teaching are those who are able to involve the audience. This is of course important in all forms of communication, but for video teaching it is especially important. The video lecturers do not get the spontaneous response that a traditional lecturer experiences: When a regular lecturer plays on humor, he will experience a response in the form of the students laughing or laughing. This is not experienced by a video lecturer, because the microphones in the external classrooms are turned off. Then it becomes all the more important that the lecturer manages to involve these students with the help of specific questions. The most experienced video lecturers stand out by being quite good at just this, she believes.